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THE 

LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH 

OF 

CHARLOTTE GRE EN, 

21 Jpoar %pl)au, -,- 




BY THE REV. ALEX. DUFF, D.D. 

OF THE SCOTCH CALCUTTA MISSION". 



REVISED BY THE OOJOnTTEE OF PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAIT SUNDAT- 
SCHOOL UNION. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

No. 146 CHESTNUT STREET. 

WMWTORK: Na 147 NASSAU STREET BOSTON: No. 9 C0RNHILL.....Z0£7ZSF7ii:5r 

No. 108 FOURTH STREET. 



-\%h%'' 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1848, by the 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 






NOTE. 

The following deeply interesting narrative 
is strikingly illustrative of the sovereignty and 
exceeding riches of Divine grace, and is ad- 
dressed to Sabbath-school children, as the re- 
cord of the special care, compassion, and love 
of the good Shepherd to the lambs of His 
flock. It is also designed to encourage them 
to persevere in their endeavours to extend the 
knowledge of the name of this Redeemer, by 
showing them how willing He is to use their 
humble efforts for the accomplishment of His 
purposes of mercy among the benighted hea- 
then. 



1* 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 



My dear young friends, — You remember 
^^-ho said, " Suffer little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not ; for of such is the king- 
dom of heaven." It was the blessed Saviour, 
Tvho has '' all power in heaven and in earth." 
It was he of whom the inspired prophet thus 
spake: ^' Unto us a child is born; unto us a 
Son is given, and the government shall be upon 
his shoulder ; and his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The 
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." It 
was he of whom the inspired apostle wrote, 
saying, ^'In the beginning was the Word, and 
the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God. All things were made by him ; and 
without him was not any thing made that was 
made. In him was life, and the life was the 
light of men. And the Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us ; and we beheld his glory, 

7 



8 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OE 

the glory as of the only begotten of the Fa- 
ther; full of grace and truth." It was He 
whoj after having laid down his life as ^^the 
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
but also for the sins of the whole world," rose 
again, ascended into the highest heavens, and 
there, in vision, revealed himself to the witness- 
ing exile of Patmos, saying, " Fear not, I am 
the first and the last : I am he that liveth and 
was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever- 
more, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and 
of death." It was this great and glorious, 
and truly "wonderful" being, from whose 
gracious lips once dropped these unspeaka- 
bly tender, cheering, and encouraging words, 
" Suffer little children to come unto me^ and 
forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom 
of heaven." 

Oh, yes ; the blessed Jesus is, in an emphatic 
sense, the Saviour and the friend of "little 
children." He is the great "shepherd and 
bishop of souls;" and the lambs of the flock 
are his peculiar care. The wise of this world 
are but too apt to look down upon children as 
beneath their notice or attention. But He, 
who is the very fountain of wisdom and grace, 
and strength and salvation, so far from despis- 
ing even little children, has specially invited 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 9 

them to come to him, that he may embrace 
them in his arms, and bless them. And shall 
little children refuse to come to Him, ^vho has 
thus proved himself to be the greatest, the 
wisest, the kindest, and the best of friends ? 
It cannot be. Thousands, and tens of thou- 
sands, have already joyfully and gratefully 
come to him. And have they not found him 
true to his own invitation, and faithful to his 
own promises? Yea, verily. And were the 
heavens now to open before our eyes, and our 
eyes to be made capable of bearing the bright 
effulgence of the eternal regions, doubtless we 
would there behold myriads of little children — 
over whose early departure parents have sor- 
rowfully mourned, and brothers and sisters 
have shed floods of tears, till their little eyes 
have been sore with weeping — now joyously 
basking in the sunshine of Jehovah's presence; 
redeemed and glorified through the merits of 
the Saviour's atoning death, and enjoying the 
caresses of his unchanging love. 

And now — to the praise and glory of Him 
who loves little children, and invites them to 
his presence, and washes from their sins in his 
own blood those who do come to him — let me 
ask your attention to a brief notice of what he 
hath done, in the fulness of his mercy and 



10 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

grace, for the soul of a poor orphan girl on the 
banks of the Ganges. 

About three years ago, a haggard, wretched- 
looking old woman happened one day to call 
at the Orphan Refuge,* under the superintend- 
ence of Miss Laing. She held by the hand a 
feeble, sickly, diseased child, of about five or 

* An institution connected with the Calcutta mission of 
the Free Church of Scotland. The condition of the class 
for whose benefit it is designed, and from which the larger 
proportion of the children resident at the institution is re- 
ceived, is the most wretched and hopeless. Not ^a few of 
them are in circumstances very much like those of Charlotte 
Green, when she was brought to Miss Laing. Many of 
them are miserable outcasts, having no one to care for either 
their souls or their bodies. 

The results which have, in many cases, attended the train- 
ing of the institution, have been of the most cheering cha- 
racter. Not a few girls, who, when received by Miss Laing, 
were utterly ignorant of their own character as sinners, and 
of the salvation provided for them, have afforded most satis- 
factory evidence of their having been translated from dark- 
ness to light, and have been admitted to the fellowship of the 
visible church. Some of them are now the wives of converts, 
and are living consistently with their Christian profession; 
and others of them are engaged in teaching their benighted 
sisters in other Christian seminaries. Several, who, like 
Charlotte Green, died at the institution, like her, gave gra- 
tifying evidence, before their departure from this world, that 
the word of life which they had heard had been abundantly 
blessed to their souls. 

The number of girls residing at the institution is at pre- 
sent QhouX forty. 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 11 

six years of age. The woman's story was a 
short one. Of the child itself — whose it was, 
or whence it came, she either could not, or would 
not, give any account. She simply declared 
that she herself was neither its mother nor 
grandmother ; yea, that she bore to it no rela- 
tionship of kindred or of blood — only having, 
some how or other, got the stranger-child into 
her possession, and being unable to support it, 
she now wished to get rid of the burden. She 
then earnestly begged Miss Laing to take the 
poor miserable outcast off her hands. Miss 
Laing did not know well what to do. She dis- 
liked the ungainly and forbidding appearance, 
alike of the woman and the child ; while the 
meagre and unsatisfactory account given of the 
latter naturally filled her mind with suspicion 
.and doubt. Altogether, she felt that, without 
some further inquiry and consideration, she 
would scarcely be warranted in taking the 
child. Accordingly, she refused to accede to 
the old Avoman's petition in its behalf ; and, 
leaving them both on the steps of the lower 
and outer verandah, she retired within the 
house. 

After the lapse of some hours, the woman 
and the child were still seen sitting on the steps 
— the former seemingly in anguish of spirit, 



12 



LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OP 



and with something like the wildness of despair 
depicted on her shrivelled countenance, and the 
latter sobbing apparently from feebleness and 
want. When asked why she kept so long lin- 
gering there, the old woman, in the bitterness 
of distress, said, that she could not go away. 
She did not know what to do with the child. 
The poor thing was starving, and she had no- 
thing to give it to eat. If the Bibi Saheb 
(meaning Miss Laing) did not take the little 
girl, '<'she must die.'' 

On this being reported to Miss Laing, she 
now began to think that the continued perse- 
verance and increasing importunity of the old 
woman, together with the evidently suffering 
condition of the child, really amounted to a 
call in providence to take the little sufferer in 
the meanwhile, and see whether inquiry might 
throw any light on its mysterious history. 

The child was indeed most ungainly, ill-fa- 
voured, and unprepossessing in appearance, 
and the account given of it wholly unsatisfac- 
tory ; but were these (Miss Laing now asked 
herself) sufficient reasons for consigning it to 
starvation, misery, and death? No, thought 
she, the love of Him who especially careth for 
the orphan and the fatherless— who specially 
pitieth the needy and the destitute, must pre- 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 13 

vail here. So reflecting, Miss Laing took the 
child. The old woman instantly hastened 
away, and has never since been seen or heard 
of. She had gained her object. The child 
had found a home. No fear any more of her 
dying from starvation ! 

How strangely gracious is our God in the 
overrulings of his providence ! The child 
was brought only to obtain a portion of the 
bread that peri*sheth. She did obtain that ; 
but she also obtained something more. God 
having some better thing in store for her, 
bountifully put within her reach what was not 
sought for — the bread of life — the bread that 
perisheth not — the bread from heaven — the 
living bread, of which they who eat shall not 
hunger any more. She tasted and was re- 
freshed. She believed in the Lord Jesus, and 
began to live — to live a new and spiritual life, 
the very germ of the life of immortality be- 
yond the grave. Though, therefore, she died, 
as we shall by-and-by see, so far as it regards 
the temporary separation of soul and body, 
she died only in order to live a better and a 
happier life, in a better and more glorious 
world. 

My young friends will perhaps wonder at 
some parts of this narration. It looks as if 
2 



14 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

some dark mystery liung over it. You who 
have attached parents and kmd relatives to 
love you and tenderly care for you — instruct- 
ing you in health, and assiduously watching 
over you in sickness — cannot well understand 
the forlorn condition of this poor girl. Who 
was the woman that brought her ? From our 
sad experience of other similar cases, we can 
have little doubt that she was a wicked person, 
who had either bought or stolen the child when 
an infant. She intended to rear her up — for 
whom ? For God and Christ, righteousness 
and heaven? Ah, no. But for Satan and 
Belial, sin and hell ! But, finding her a deli- 
cate, feeble and sickly child, the wretched 
woman evidently concluded, that, if she lived 
to grow up, she would not answer any of her 
sinful purposes ; that, on the contrary, she 
might only prove a heavy burden to her. And, 
being unable to re-sell so ill-conditioned a child, 
or get any one to take so apparently useless a 
creature off her hands, even without any price, 
and fearing, probably to deprive her of life, or 
cast her away, lest she might be detected and 
brought to punishment, she must have thought 
it safer to search for some charitable institu- 
tion, where she might be received, and, with- 
out any cost to her, provided for. Think, then, 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 16 

of the awful gulf from which the poor child 
was delivered ! And let us unite together in 
praising that sovereign Lord who, in his gra- 
cious providence, overruled the selfish fears of 
a wicked woman so as to pave the way for the 
salvation of an immortal soul ! 

Some of you will, doubtless, be startled at 
the statement of huying or stealing a child, 
and that, too, for mischievous ends ; and well 
you may. Among a people who truly know 
and love the Lord Jesus, such iniquity is, or 
ought to be, unheard of and unknown. But, 
in a heathen land like this — a land of thickest 
darkness and most stupifying superstition — the 
life of a human being is treated as of little or 
no value, and the very soul, with its awful ca- 
pacity of never-ending bliss or never-ending 
wo, practically regarded as of no value. Con- 
sequently, in such a land, such cruel and hor- 
rid practices as those now alluded to, are un- 
happily so common as scarcely to be noticed. 
It is the blessed Jesus who has fully brought 
to light the real value of the life that now is, 
and who has shed a blaze of glory over the 
soul's immortality. How thankful, then, ought 
you to be that your lot has been cast in a land 
of Bibles — a land of Christian parents, Chris- 
tian teachers, and Christian Sabbath-schools 



16 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

— a land of gospel light and gospel liberty — a 
land in which the souls, even of the young, 
may be nurtured for the realms of glory. 

As to the poor girl herself — who and whence 
was she ? Here, too, we can only offer a con- 
jecture, though a highly probable one. In 
Calcutta, we have many races of people — Hin- 
dus; Mohammedans, from different parts of 
India, Arabia, Persia, and Tartary; Jews, 
Greeks, and Armenians, from the West ; Chi- 
nese, Malays, and Burmese, from the East ; 
with numbers of the mixed descendants of Por- 
tuguese, French, Dutch, British, &c. These 
all differ in a marked manner, in their colour, 
features, and expression of countenance. Well, 
then, from her general appearance and cast of 
countenance, we inferred that Charlotte Green, 
the subject of this narrative, was of Armenian 
descent. But who or what her parents had 
been, or whether they were dead or alive, we 
never could learn. How singular ! Look at 
your maps, and you will see the country of Ar- 
menia in Asia, on the south-east of the Black 
Sea, with Mount Ararat on its borders, and 
the springs of Tigris and Euphrates among its 
hills. These names will remind you of Adam 
and of Moses, of Paradise and the Flood. And 
a little girl, adjudged to be, by parental descent, 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 17 

from the mountains of Armenia, having be- 
come an outcast on the banks of the Ganges, 
finds there a shelter and a home in an institu- 
tion supported by the ladies of the Free 
Church of Scotland — Scotland, itself but a 
portion of one of the remotest, and what was 
once one of the most heathenish and barba- 
rous, of the isles of the ocean ! Such is the 
diffusive spirit and wide-spread sympathy in- 
spired by the faith and love of Jesus, the Re- 
deemer of the world. Truly, as it was sin 
which divided and scattered the race of man, 
filling its various tribes with hatred, enmity, 
and strife, so is it the blessed gospel of sal- 
vation from sin, that will again gather in and 
reunite its diversified kindreds and people into 
one holy, loving, and happy brotherhood. 

But I must not forget my intended narra- 
tive. 

Under the combined influence of wholesome 
food, cleanliness, systematic rules, and kind 
treatment, the poor, little, outcast girl soon 
greatly improved in health, strength, and gene- 
ral appearance ; though she always retained a 
certain delicateness of look and sallowness of . 
complexion. But it was in mind and manners 
that the change became most apparent. 

When just received by Miss Laing into the 
2* 



18 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

Orphan Refuge, she knew nothing. She had 
not even learned any alphabet. A Saviour's 
name was strange to her. The Bible was a 
book unheard of. Sin and salvation, heaven 
and hell, were unknown sounds. But she soon 
showed a remarkable aptitude in learning — an 
aptitude which amounted to an extraordinary- 
forwardness. Her own spoken dialect was a 
broken gibberish of Hindustani or Widu. And 
now she betook herself eagerly to English; 
and, in a surprisingly short time, she could read 
and speak it intelligibly. 

The subject of sin and its curse, of the Sa- 
viour and redemption through his blood, soon 
took a deep hold of her mind. She did not 
say much, for she was naturally timid, shy, and 
reserved. But young as she was, her looks 
and conduct indicated that she thought much. 
Her whole manner had about it a gravity, se- 
dateness, and even solemnity, far beyond her 
years. In truth, as time served to show, she 
proved to be one of those tender plants, singled 
out by the sovereign grace of God from amid 
the chilling frosts of wintry time, and trans- 
planted into a more genial soil, there to be 
speedily ripened for the paradise above. 

As soon as she could read, she seemed never 
to tire of reading. And often, after reading 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 19 

"what specially interested her, she would be seen 
to retire, and, apart by herself, fall into a 
mood of thoughtful contemplation. To such an 
extent was this system of reading and meditat- 
ing carried, that it was often with difficulty she 
could be induced to join in the healthful play 
and innocent recreative exercises of her youth- 
ful associates. Little Christian books and 
missionary stories she read over and over 
again, and made their contents the subject of 
frequent conversation. 

But, contrary to the taste of most young 
persons, and of all unconverted people, the 
reading of the Bible was her chief delight. She 
was particularly fond of committing Scripture 
texts to memory, of repeating them to herself, 
and of quoting them on suitable occasions to 
her little companions. In this way she learned 
not single verses only, but whole psalms, and 
chapters of the gospels and epistles. 

It was a wish which she often expressed, 
that she could carry the Bible always about 
with her. But it was too heavy and inconve- 
nient. She, however, happened to fall in with 
a stray leaf of the psalms in metre, containing 
part of Psalm 104, the whole of 105, and part 
of 106. This single leaf, from its being so 
portable, she reckoned a great prize. Having 



20 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

folded it up, she constantly carried it about 
with her. It was in her bosom by day, and 
under her pillow by night. During play hours, 
she would be seen retiring to some corner, tak- 
ing out her leaf, unfolding and reading it with 
manifest joy. The first few verses of the 106th 
psalm, in particular, seemed always greatly to 
affect her. On one occasion, she was observed 
to be weeping. When asked what was the cause, 
she replied that she had lost her precious Bible 
leaf; and appeared inconsolable till the little 
treasure was again found.* 

What a lesson of carefulness with respect to 
the blessed Bible may children, and even grown- 
up people in Christian lands, learn from this 
once hopeless, helpless, and forlorn outcast ! 
The Lord's ^^ servants" of old, "took pleasure" 
in the very "stones of Zion," and "favoured 
the very dust thereof," because of their asso- 
ciation of these with the worship and glorious 
presence of Jehovah. And is not Jehovah 
peculiarly present in his own revealed Word ? 
Is it not his voice that is thus addressing us ? 
Without, therefore, treating the material leaves 
of the Bible with superstitious reverence — at 

* This leaf was enclosed by Dr. Duff in the MS. of the 
present memoir. 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 21 

once blind and idolatrous — it becomes us to 
treat even these with respect, because of the 
impress of Jehovah's mind thereon, as it were, 
legibly engraven. On this sublimely important 
subject, my young friends will excuse me for 
quoting a few verses, somew^hat quaintly ex- 
pressed, from an old author, Mr. Christopher 
Harvie, who died in 1663. 

The Bible ! That's the Book. The Book indeed, 

The Book of Books ; 

On which who looks, 
As he should do, aught shall never need, 

Nor wish a better light 

To guide him in the night ; 

Or, when he hungry is, for better food 

To feed upon, 

Than this alone, 
If he bring stomach and digestion good ; 

And if he be amiss, 

This the best physic is. 
The true panacea 'tis for ev'ry sore 

And sickness, which 
The poor and rich 
With equal ease may come by. Yea, 'tis more — 
An antidote, as well 
As remedy 'gainst hell. 

It is the looking-glass of souls, wherein 

All men may see 

Whether they be 
Still as by nature they're, deformed with sin ; 

Or in a better case. 

As new adorned with grace. 



22 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

It is the index to eternity ; 

He cannot miss 

Of endless bliss, 
That takes this chart to steer his voyage by, 

Nor can he be mistook 

That speaketh by this book. 

A Book, to which no book can be compared 

For excellence ; 

Pre-eminence 
Is proper to it and cannot be shared ; 

Divinity alone 

Belongs to it, or none. 

At other times, our young friend, instead of 
reading, would betake herself to the singing 
of psalms and hymns — many of which she had 
thoroughly learned under Miss Laing's teaching. 
The twenty-third Psalm was a favourite ; and 
sweetly was she wont to sing it, when all alone, 
with no eye upon her, (as she thought,) but the 
eye of the good Shepherd of Israel, and no ear 
to hear, but that of the ever-present Jehovah. 
How different this from the depraved taste of 
those foolish children — ay, and foolish men and 
foolish women too — whose great enjoyment 
consists in singing songs of carnal mirth and 
worldly levity, as if prisoners in a dungeon 
should laugh and jest to drive away a sense of 
their miserable condition. For what are men 
in their natural, unregenerate, unpardoned state, 
but imprisoned criminals under sentence of con- 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 23 

demnation? — ready to be brought forth, at any 
moment, for execution, under the descending 
stroke of the sword of divine justice? And 
would it be reckoned seemly or decent on earth, 
for criminals, who are condemned to die, to 
make the walls of their dreary prison-house re- 
echo with drunken songs and boisterous merri- 
ment; and, even on their way to the fatal scaf- 
fold, rehearse the sounds and exhibit the atti- 
tudes of profane levity and folly ? Impossible. 
Ought it not, then, to be accounted an immea- 
surably greater outrage against propriety and 
decency, for those who are justly condemned 
by the sovereign Lord and Judge of all, not to 
death temporal merely, but to death eternal, 
and who, while yet unpardoned, can only be 
regarded as treading with certain footsteps the 
broad road that leadeth to endless perdition — 
for persons in this doleful and melancholy con- 
dition, to be exhibiting, as they pass along, 
both by voice and gesture, all the signs and 
symbols of a frenzied and frantic mirth? 

Another very noticeable feature in the ra- 
pidly developing character of Charlotte Green, 
was the delight which she experienced in prayer, 
both public and private. She was never knoAvn 
to be absent from morning and evening prayer 
"with Miss Laing and her flock. But, besides 



24 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

this, she was wont constantly to retire for soli- 
tary prayer. Now when such prayer to the 
holy God, through the divine Redeemer, is 
the cheerful and spontaneous utterance of the 
heart, it seems to be one of the surest symp- 
toms of the new birth in the soul. As the 
sluggish earth, when powerfully acted on by 
the noonday sun, cannot but send forth kindly 
vapours, which, rising into the upper atmo- 
sphere, become there condensed, and return, to 
enrich the source whence they spring, with fer- 
tilizing showers; so the naturally inert and 
barren soul, when brought under the influ- 
ence of the beams of the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, cannot but breathe forth its newly- 
awakened desires and longings in the utterance 
of prayer, which, ascending to the throne of the 
Eternal in the heavens, at length return, with 
an overflow of spiritual blessings, to the quick- 
ened soul whence they emanated. 

Many other traits of character might be 
specified, such as her love of truth and her ab- 
horrence of lying — her rigid exactness in at- 
tending to the fulfilment of a promise — her 
uprightness in all her little dealings with the 
other children — her disdain of all those low, 
mean, and cunning arts, which in this dark 
land seem to sprout forth like the foul and rank 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 25 

luxuriance of a universal and hereditary dis- 
ease — her gratefulness of heart on account of 
any, even the least, favour received — her kind- 
liness and obligingness of disposition — her dili- 
gence in her studies — her carefulness in attend- 
ing to the minutest instructions or directions 
given to her, whether they regarded the im- 
•provement of her mind, the cleanliness of her 
person and dress, or the regulation of her man- 
ners ; — but these and many other kindred traits 
I purposely pass by, without any special notice, 
thou^rh all contributino; to render her character 
estimable and lovely. Some of these might be 
of nature, though, in the present instance, they 
vrere all improved and enhanced by that grace 
which threw a sacred lustre over the whole. 
But as time and space will not admit of a fuller 
elucidation of such particulars, I must hasten 
on to the latter days of our young friend, when 
that grace, which had only, as it were, faintly 
glimmered before, shone forth in a burst of hea- 
venly effulgence. 

There is one other fact, however, of a gene- 
ral kind, which ought not to be omitted. It is 
this : — Of all the days of the week, the Sabbath 
was that which our young friend loved most. 
When asked why she loved it best, her reply 
was, <' Because it is the Lord's day — the Lord's 
3 



26 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

own day." She loved it, moreover, because all 
its lessons and exercises were connected with 
the reading and hearing of God's word, and 
the great salvation wrought out by Christ — 
themes which inspired the chief est joy of her 
heart. She loved it, because on that day there 
was no distraction arising from mere secular, 
though necessary and profitable, employments. 
In this fondness for the Sabbath and its hallow- 
ing exercises, how different was the taste shown 
by this young person, from that usually exhi- 
bited by the unhappy people of this world! 
Their hearts not being alive to God, they have 
little or no interest in what is peculiarly His. 
But the true child of God, looking unto Him 
with filial gratitude and love, rejoices in what- 
ever is His, simply and solely because it is His. 
Were the Sabbath-day distinguished in some 
extraordinary manner from other days; were it 
to be invariably ushered in by ^^ blackness and 
darkness, and tempest," with the thunders and 
lightnings leaping forth from the bosom of the 
tremendous gloom ; or were the sun invariably 
to arise on the hallowed morn with sevenfold 
brightness ; or were it in any other way to be 
marked out and signalized by marvellous phe- 
nomena, which irresistibly appealed to the 
senses of men; it is possible that, in such a 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 27 

case, it migbt come to be regarded, even by 
worldly people, with feelings akin to those of 
involuntary and superstitious reverence. But 
it is because the Sabbath is in no such way dis- 
tinguished from other days ; it is because the 
obligation to observe it rests not on any appeal 
to the outward senses, but solely on the fact of 
its being of divine appointment — a fact revealed 
by God, and received by faith , — it is on this 
very account, that the due observance of it may 
well be converted into a test of genuine reli- 
gious character and true devotedness to God. 
They who walk by sense, and not by faith, will 
ever be sure, in their own hearts, if not openly 
and scornfully, to repudiate the duty of observ- 
ing it. They, on the other hand, who, through 
grace, have been led to live by faith, and not by 
sight, do ever rejoice in the observance of it, 
as seeing in it the immutable ordinance of the 
invisible Jehovah — the supreme and sovereign 
Lord of all — and yet to them, in the covenant 
of redemption, a reconciled Father in Christ 
Jesus their Lord. And truly do they find, as 
in the case of all the other commandments of 
God, that in ^^ the keeping of it there is a' great 
reward" — a vast accession of blessedness to their 
own spirits now, as well as a taste and earnest 
of the enjoyments of that everlasting Sabbath 



28 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

which shines upon the bright inhabitants of 
heaven. 

But I must hasten to the closing scene of 
our young friend's earthly pilgrimage. 

A few weeks before her departure, Miss 
Laing happened to say to her, '' Do you 
seriously think of sin ? Do you really feel 
that you are a sinner?" The prompt reply 
was, " Oh ! I do feel that I am a great sinner — 
a great, great, great sinner !" and then she 
wept. Recovering herself, she soon added, 
" But I'll go to Christ ; and he will pardon all 
my sins. I have prayed to him, and I know 
that he will forgive me." These last words she 
repeated several times, and then again wept. 

Towards the end of August, she became 
very unwell, but soon rallied. On Sabbath, 
(the last day of August,) she joined in all the 
hallowing exercises of the day of rest. It was 
her last Sabbath on earth. Her next was 
spent in a happier world, amid more glorious 
companions. 

On Monday, the 1st of September, she felt 
rather unwell ; but there was nothing to excite 
any apprehension bf danger. On Tuesday 
morning, at dawn of day, she said to Mrs. Gor- 
don, the matron of the institution, " Oh ! how 
sorry I am for you; you have taken much 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 29 

trouble for me ; I have been praying to God for 
you, and others, nearly this whole night." Soon 
afterwards, she addressed her in these terms : 

^' I have no need of your dinner now ; I am 
filled with the bread that cometh from above ; 
I am ill, and I know that I will not live, neither 
do I wish to live/' Soon after this she was 
heard uttering, in an under-tone of voice, these 
words: ^«God bless Miss Laing ! God bless the 
matron ! God bless all the children !" 

After this, she said to some of the children 
standing by her, 

" Oh ! call to me my darling babus bib^,'' 
(meaning Mahendra's widow,) "for I only 
wish to see her once." 

The latter went to her, saying, 

"How do you feel, Charlotte? Is there 
any thing I can do for you ?" 

She replied, "Oh ! yes ; do read a psalm to 
me, and pray for me." 

After this was done, she was asked, 

" Charlotte, are you afraid of dying ?" 

"Oh! no," she replied; "lam not afraid 
to die ; I am going to God ; for Jesus Christ's 
sake, my sins are forgiven; all my sins are 
cleansed through his blood." 

Susan, another of the girls, since baptized, 
said, 

3* 



30 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

'^ Charlotte, do you believe in Jesus Christ ?" 
She replied, " Oh ! yes." 
'^ If you die, where will you go ?" 
'' I will go to heaven, where I shall seiB Jesus 
Christ, and all his holy people/' 

<' When wicked children die, where do they 

go?" 

^antohell." 

After this, she said, 

" Susan, I have prayed to God for you all, 
that he may bless you, and keep you from all 
evil. Pray to God for yourselves, and repent 
of your sins. Love also Miss Laing, and be 
grateful to her. See how she loves you ; through 
her, God gives you food and clothing. See 
how much trouble she takes in instructing you, 
to make you holy children of God, and forsake 
your sins." 

Again, Susan asked her, 

'^ Charlotte, what did Jesus say to little 
children ?" 

On which she repeated the passage, (the 
divine charter of little ones,) ^^ Suffer little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

To another of the girls she said, 
. " I shall not live ; I think I shall die ; and 
I will be very glad to die, and go to God !" 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 31 

Another asked how she felt. 

'^ Happy, for I think I will not live till to- 
night. I wish that some one would sit near 
me, and read a chapter, and explain it to me, 
and pray for me." 

Then, with tears in her eyes, she said, ^^ I 
wish to see my darling Miss Laing, and all the 
children." 

Susan then went to report her wish to Miss 
Laing, who instantly was by her bedside. She 
at once took hold of Miss Laing, and, though 
not wont to express herself with much freedom, 
said, with an earnest voice and wistful counte- 
nance, 

'' Oh ! ma'am, I love you very much ; you 
brought me to Jesus ; now pray for me." 

After prayer, she requested Miss Laing to 
read to her the 103d Psalm, to which she lis- 
tened with tearful attention. When ended, 
Miss Laing said, 

"Jesus loves praying children, Charlotte." 

To which she replied in the words of the 
psalm which had been read, and on which she 
was evidently still musing : — 

** Such pity as a father hath 
Unto his children dear ; 
Like pity shows the Lord to such 
As worship him in fear. 



32 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

" For he remembers we are dust, 
And he our frame well knows. 
Frail man ! his days are like the grass, 
As flower in field he grows : 

" For over it the wind doth pass, 
And it away is gone ; 
And in the place where once it was 
It shall no more be known." 

Thus she proceeded to the end of the psalm, 
repeating certain passages, more especially 
those now quoted, again and again, with un- 
common emphasis. Then, after a few minutes' 
silence, she exclaimed, with an ecstasy of de- 
light, and the most exhausting energy of utter- 
ance, 

" Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world !" 

After a short pause, she next repeated a 
verse of one of her favourite school hymns, 
which seemed to afford her special pleasure : — 

* * Around the throne of God in heaven 
Thousands of children stand ; 
Children whose sins are all forgiven, 
A holy, happy band. 

Singing glory ! glory ! glory !" 

She then remained silent ; closed her eyes ; 
and appeared to be sinking into sleep. Miss 
Laing, however, having noticed her lips moving, 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 33 

asked if she was asleep ; to winch she answered, 
'' Oh ! no, I was praying to Jesus Christ to 
take away all my sins." 

" You know," said Miss Laing, '^ a great deal 
of the Bible ; now that you are so weak and 
unable to read, you will find how sweet God's 
word is." 

She at once replied, ^^ Blessed be the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, 
according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten 
us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an in- 
heritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you," 
and so on, without once stopping, to the tenth 
verse of the 1st chapter of 1st Peter. The 
eighth verse, ^^ Whom having not seen, ye love; 
in whom, though now ye see him not, yet be- 
lieving, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and 
full of glory," she then repeated separately 
several times, with manifest joy. 

Shortly after this she commenced the 14th 
chapter of John : — 

" Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe 
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 
house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place 
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for 



34 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

you, I will come again and receive you unto 
myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also:" and so on, repeating the whole, without 
missing a verse, to the very end, only pausing 
occasionally, and making the most intelligent 
remarks, as she went along. After having 
finished, for example, the first three verses, she 
said, 

" Oh ! yes ; Jesus is the way — the only way. 
He will come to receive me. He is the good 
Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. And 
he will come for his own ; in his Father's house 
are many mansions, and there he has prepared 
a place for them." 

Miss Laing, after a good deal more of con- 
versation and exercises of this sort, gave her a 
little hymn-book to read, and then left her. 
On again returning to her, she said, '^ I like 
the hymn-book very much ; but I like the best 
book better, because it tells me more about 
Jesus." 

She then asked Miss Laing to read to her 
the 4Gth Psalm, which she herself afterwards 
repeated many times during the day and the 
following night, as also the whole of the 90th 
Psalm. 

On another occasion she wept aloud. On 
inquiring the cause, thinking it might be fear, 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 35 

she replied, '' Oh, no, not fear ; I long to be 
away — I long to go to heaven.'' ^'Why do 
you?*' ''Because there will be Jesus, and it 
is a holy place — no sin there." 

Two of the other girls having transgressed 
in some way, she interceded for them in a very 
touching manner ; and then calling them to 
her bed-side, said, " Ask pardon of Christ ; 
remember that the blood of Christ cleanseth 
from all sin ; flee then to him.'* 

Throughout the day she constantly sent for 
one girl, and then another, earnestly exhorting 
them, one by one, separately, in English or 
Hindustani, according as they understood best 
the one language, or the other. 

At other times, she would ask a whole class 
to stand near her bed ; and more than once 
had the whole of the girls assembled around 
her. Sometimes she exhorted them to repent 
of their sins, and believe in Jesus ; sometimes 
she would offer up a short prayer for them ; 
and then she would ask the whole to join in 
singing a psalm. Then she would, with singu- 
lar animation, address them, saying, '' Pray, 
oh pray earnestly to God, who will take away 
all your sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. Be 
thankful to God for his mercies. Attend to 
all Miss Laing's instructions; you see how 



36 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

God has raised her up to be the means of giv- 
ing you food, instruction, and every thing. Oh, 
praise God for his goodness ; look to Jesus, 
for his blood cleanseth from all sin." These 
latter words, ''For his blood cleanseth from 
all sin," she repeated with a frequency, and 
an urgency and a pathos, which showed what 
a solace they proved to her own soul. 

She would then ask them all to retire, aSi 
she wished to pray for them all. Marianne, 
one of the girls, having read, at her request, a 
hymn, she said, ''Now, let me pray." After 
a while she again said, " I have prayed for 
every one in the house separately; and I am 
soon going to Jesus, who has prepared a place 
for me, and who will also prepare a place for 
all that love him." 

At one time Miss Laing asked her if she 
felt any pain. "Oh, no," was the reply; 
" Jesus hath suffered all my pain." 

Thus passed the whole of Tuesday, the 2d 
September, in soul-stirring exercises that 
seemed redolent with the savour and unction 
of the Spirit's presence. Divine grace had 
evidently long been at work in the soul of that 
dear young person, so singularly favored of 
the Lord. But, outwardly, it had hitherto ex- 
hibited the special signs of its in-working only 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 37 

by droppings. When, however, the great 
work of making the soul '' meet for the in- 
heritance of the saints in light'* was about to 
be completed, and the sanctified spirit was 
nearly prepared to wing its flight to the hea- 
venly regions, it really seemed as if grace, in 
its transition to glory, burst forth as a torrent 
into outward manifestation — visiting and re- 
freshing all around with the copiousness of its 
overflow. 

On Wednesday morning, the 3d September, 
there still did not appear to be any ground for 
apprehending immediate danger. She looked 
like one who might yet live — there being no 
symptoms indicative of early or even certain 
dissolution. On Miss Laing's visiting her, she 
asked her to read the fifty-first Psalm in prose. 
On the fourth verse, '' Against thee, thee only, 
have I sinned," &c., she dwelt much, repeating 
these words several times. 

All the children were then called. When 
standing round her bed, she asked them to 
sing the twenty-third Psalm. This they did, and 
then she remarked, " Oh, how kind and good ! 
Sweet, sweet Jesus ! he is the good Shepherd ; 
and he will be in the valley ; why, then, should 
I fear?" 

Shortly after this she expressed a wish to 
4 



38 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

see the writer of this narrative — that he 
might "speak to her about Jesus, and pray 
for her." When asked why she wished to 
see me in particular, her own simple answer 
was, " Because I understand him." Would 
that we all possessed more of the gift of mak- 
ing ourselves intelligible to children ! seeing 
that they constitute so large a proportion of 
the human race ; that, if spared, they will 
afterwards be the heads and leaders of society; 
and that, if not spared, they have immortal 
souls that need to be saved as much as the 
souls of adults. Methinks the ministerial 
gift of instructing children in the things that 
concern their everlasting salvation, ought to 
be cultivated far more assiduously and sys- 
tematically than it has ever yet been done. 
But, letting that pass, on the occasion referred 
to, a note, intimating the wish of my young 
friend, was forwarded, and reached me when 
about to start for the institution. As it was 
distinctly expressed that there was no imme- 
diate apprehension of death, and, as I had spe- 
cial work before me in the institution, I re- 
solved to proceed thither first, and hasten back 
as early as I could, in order that I might de- 
vote the after part of the day to the dear 
young child without interruption. But, alas ! 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 39 

I was too late. She had very suddenly and 
unexpectedly sunk ; so that she expired about 
a quarter of an hour before I arrived. It is 
not possible for me to express the sorrow and 
regret which I felt at not seeing her once more 
alive ; and more especially as she herself had 
expressed an earnest wish to see me. In igno- 
rance of her dissolution being so near at hand, 
my resolution was adopted with the view of 
giving her more of my time ; but it was so 
overruled that I had none at all to give her ! 
Such is our short-sightedness in the midst of 
our best wishes and endeavours ! May the 
Lord forgive us on account of all our short- 
comings and errors of judgment, as well as 
other sins ! 

Nothing could be more cheering than the 
account of our young friend's triumphant 
death. Towards noon it became evident that 
a change was rapidly approaching. When 
Miss Laing and the other children went in to 
her, she asked them to sing her favourite 
twenty-third Psalm. After this, she half 
raised herself up from the bed, and with more 
than her natural energy, said, " I am now 
going to Jesus ; repent, repent of your sins ; 
seek pardon, oh seek pardon, through his pre- 



40 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

cious blood! Pray, pray for the Holy Spirit. 
Be thankful, be thankful for all the instruction 
you have received. I want away, I want away 
— I want to go to Jesus ; I do not want to live ; 
I wish to die, and go to Jesus, who has washed 
away my sins in his own blood." 

Exhausted with the effort, she asked them 
all to join in singing the whole of the favourite 
hymn, of which the first verse has already 
been quoted. And as it was the last in the 
singing of which she joined on earth, and is, 
moreover, in itself, a very beautiful piece of 
sacred melody, it may here be given entire : — 

Around the throne of God in heaven, 

Thousands of children stand; 
Children whose sins are all forgiven, 

A holy, happy band, 

Singing glory, glory, glory. 

In flowing robes of spotless white 

See every one arrayed ; 
Dwelling in everlasting light 

And joys that never fade, 
Singing glory, glory, glory. 

Once they were little things like you. 

And lived on earth below ; 
And would not praise, as now they do, 

The Lord who loved them so, 
Singing glory, glory, glory. 



CHARLOTTE GBEEN. 41 

What brought them to that world above, 
That heaven so bright and fair ? 

Where all is peace, and joy, and love- 
How came those children there ? 
Singing glory, glory, glory. 

Because the Saviour shed his blood 

To wash away their sin ; 
Bathed in that pure and precious flood, 

Behold them white and clean, 
Singing glory, glory, glory. 

On earth they sought the Saviour's grace. 

On earth they loved his name ; 
So now they see his blessed face, 

And stand before the Lamb, 
Singing glory, glory, glory. 

Many minutes did not elapse after the singing 
of this simple, sweet, and singularly appro- 
priate hymn, when the soul of Charlotte Green 
took its flight to these bright realms, there to 
prove the reality and substance of the song, 
by taking her station among the holy and 
happy throng of ransomed children that help 
to swell the chorus of the ''noble army" and 
" cloud'' of heavenly witnesses, that cease not, 
day nor night, to sound the praises of Him 
that ''sitteth upon the throne and the Lamb 
for ever and ever." 

Immediately after the hymn was sung, all 
4* 



42 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

went out except Miss Laing. She then said 
that she must, once more^ pray for all indivi- 
dually. After having done so, in a sort of 
gentle whispering, scarcely audible tone, she 
asked Miss Laing to read to her the fifty-first 
Psalm. And she now appeared very languid 
and faint. Miss Laing, simply in order to as- 
certain whether she clearly knew what she was 
doing, asked her to begin the psalm herself. 
This she did at once, repeating part of it in 
verse ; after which she distinctly requested 
Miss Laing to read it to her in prose. Almost 
instantly after the psalm was read, she broke 
silence, saying, ^^Pray, pray — oh pray, ma'am, 
pray !'' These were her last words. It seemed 
as if she had been seized with a sudden con- 
sciousness of her soul's departing to its rest ; 
and, when amid the swellings of Jordan, her 
eye catching a glimpse of her kind earthly 
guide and guardian, standing, as it were, on the 
nether bank, she earnestly cried out to her to 
pray the Divine Shepherd to grant her a safe 
passage across the flood to the heavenly shore. 
For a few moments her lips gently quivered, 
and then, with eyes uplifted, and the entire 
expression of the countenance settling in a 
fixed attitude of imploring prayer, she softly, 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 43 

"without a sigli, without a groan, and without a 
struggle, ^' fell asleep in Jesus/' 

Throughout the whole of her last illness, 
nothing was more noticeable than the extreme 
importance she attached to prayer — her ex- 
treme anxiety for prayer in her own behalf — 
and her extreme earnestness in prayer for 
others. She seemed to live and breathe in an 
atmosphere of prayer ; literally realizing the 
apostolic injunction of '^ praying without ceas- 
ing." For when not engaged in repeating 
Scripture passages and hymns, or in listening 
to others, she appeared to be alw^ays praying ; 
sometimes in the stillness of meditative silence ; 
sometimes in short ejaculatory utterances ; such 
as, " Lord Jesus, forgive all my sins. Holy 
Spirit, come into my heart. Lord Jesus, take 
me to heaven, — take me to thyself; wash and 
cleanse me in thy precious blood," &c. 

The intensity of her earnestness respecting 
the salvation of the souls of her young compa- 
nions w^as also extraordinary. Again and again 
did she exhort them with tears, entreating them, 
in a tone and manner the most solemn and un- 
earthly, to forsake sin, to flee to the Saviour 
for refuge ; reminding them that they too must 
die, and that it was faith in Jesus which alone 



44 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

could make them die happy. And in these 
varied exhortations, she evinced a solid sense, 
an intelligence and judgment, a clearness and 
precision of expression, which seemed to indi- 
cate the mellow ripeness of an aged saint, 
rather than the tender budding of an infantile 
mind. But it was the Lord vindicating the 
sovereignty of his grace. Men, in their igno- 
rance and presumption, may set limits to the 
"High and the Holy One." The supreme 
judges of the land may, as they once actually 
did in this very city of Calcutta, proclaim, by 
their judicial decisions, that no one under the 
legal age of sixteen is fit or capable of becom- 
ing a Christian — a true and intelligent believer 
in the Lord Jesus ; but Jehovah himself hath 
declared, that " out of the mouth of babes and 
sucklings he can perfect praise.'' And has he 
not often, in very deed and truth, caused his 
own declaration to be verified, and thereby cast 
mockery and derision on the impotent decisions 
of ignorant and presumptuous men ? " The 
chief priests and scribes,'' the representatives 
of the worldly great in every age and clime, 
were "sore displeased" when they heard the 
children crying in the temple, and saying, 
"Hosanna to the Son of David!" But the 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 45 

blessed Saviour, the great searcher of hearts, 
acknowleedgd the cry, recognising in it the 
fulfilment of prophecy, and the manifestation 
of Jehovah's distinguishing favour and sove- 
reign grace. And if the Lord is thus gra- 
ciously pleased to make bare his holy arm in 
favour of little children, so as out of their 
mouths to perfect his own glorious praise, what 
is man that he should presume to refuse to re- 
cognise and honour the operation of His hand 
— the palpable workings of His omnipotent 
grace ? Under the law, the names of young 
Samuel and Josiah will readily present them- 
selves to every reader of the Bible. And these 
were not exceptions, but only remarkable spe- 
cimens of a class. Under the gospel, from 
young Timothy downwards, we constantly read 
of children w^ho gave proofs of a divine work 
being carried on in their souls. That great 
and good man, President Edwards, in his ac- 
count of a signal revival of religion under his 
own ministry, favours us with the particulars 
of the case of a little girl of only four years 
of age, w^ho gave indubitable proofs, sufficient 
to satisfy even his acute and penetrating mind, 
of a real conversion to God. And in our own 
day, the narratives of early piety are almost 



46 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

without number. Yet all of these, and such 
like, are only specimens of a class, many, many 
of whose names, though unrecorded in the an- 
nals of time, are doubtless written in " the 
Lamb's book of life,'' and shall unite in cele- 
brating the praise of Him who died to redeem 
them through the boundless ages of eternity. 
Let us, then, pray to God for more copious 
effusions of that grace which can break down 
those who are most hardened in sin to the sim- 
plicity and docility of a little child, and can 
raise the natural insensibility and feebleness 
of a little child into the fervour and energy of 
an aged saint. 

But I must hasten to a close. In this coun- 
try, from the great heat of the climate, the pro- 
cess of dissolution commences so soon, and ad- 
vances so rapidly, that the universal custom is 
to remove the dead body within a few hours of 
the decease. And in a city like Calcutta the 
undertakers have usually a supply of coffins of 
all sizes ready made. In the case of Charlotte 
Green, who died a little before one o'clock, 
p. M., the body was in the coffin and prepared 
for removal about five o'clock of the same day. 
On such an occasion, there was no need for an 
assemblage of people. Mr. Ewart, (who was 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 47 

in the habit of instructing the children,) and 
myself, attended. After prayer and a short 
exhortation to the sorrowing and weeping chil- 
dren, at half-past five, we started for the burying- 
ground, four men carrying the cofiin on their 
shoulders, with other four to relieve them ; whil 
Mr. Ewart and myself followed behind. On 
reaching the burying-place, we found that, 
through some mistake on the part of the under- 
taker or his agents, no grave had been dug. 
As no time was to be lost, mattocks and other 
implements were speedily procured. In a deep, 
rich, alluvial soil like that of Bengal, so free 
from stones, and gravel, and frost, and more 
especially when saturated as it then was with 
the floods of the rainy season, it was no diffi- 
cult matter to dig a grave. 

When the work of excavation was com- 
menced, Mr. Ewart took his stand on a tomb- 
stone on one side, and I on a tombstone on the 
other, watching the process in silent meditation. 
It was, indeed, a dismal solitude. We were the 
only party at that time within the walls of the 
ample enclosure. The shadows of the evening 
were closing apace. On all sides we were sur- 
rounded with blackened monuments of the dead, 
buried far away from kindred and from home. 



48 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

Here and there, the grass and weeds shot up in 
wild and rank luxuriance. Close by, however, 
like a messenger of hope, the magnificent palm- 
tree, the chosen emblem of the righteous one, 
with its evergreen leaves, and its ever-copious 
sap, was seen rearing its stately head far above 
the mouldering ashes of the dead, typifying to 
the eye of sense the inexhaustibleness of that 
grace which ever flows fresh and full from the 
fount itself of eternal love, and significantly 
pointing to the life, the glorious life, that is yet 
to spring forth from the domain of mortality, 
where death shall finally lose its sting, and the 
grave its victory. 

In about half an hour, all that was mortal or 
perishable of little Charlotte Green was safely 
consigned to the tomb, there peaceably to slum- 
ber till the resurrection-morn. And we must 
never forget the glorious truth, that, when the 
last trumpet sounds, that precious dust now 
sown in corruption shall rise in incorruption, 
and that mortal form shall appear arrayed in 
the garb of immortality. 

Standing amid the loneliness of that melan- 
choly scene, and yet a scene bright with the 
hopes of a glorious future to the righteous, 
how vivid and overpowering was the impres- 



CHARLOTTE GREEX. 49 

sion of the difference and the contrast between 
the funeral of the poor orphan, and that of 
many whose dust lay in the same neighbour- 
hood ! Unnoticed and unknown by the world, 
or even by any extended circle of acquaint- 
ance, and unattended to her last earthly home 
by any but two strangers from a foreign land, 
the remains of the former were committed to 
the dust, with all the simplicity which charac- 
terized the earliest patriarchal times. Others, 
distinguished more or less in the annals of 
worldly fame, and caressed and honoured by 
thousands when living, have been accompanied 
to the grave by the gorgeous equipages of the 
great and the mighty, and all the pomp and 
grandeur of solemn funeral processions. 

What a difference and contrast too in the 
resurrection of the dead ! Then, however, the 
order of things will be entirely reversed. The 
dust of the believing orphan, however humble 
and obscure on earth, will then rise to glory, 
honour and immortality ; while the dust of the 
unbelieving throng, however great or applauded 
on earth, will rise to shame and everlasting con- 
tempt. 

Pray, then, young friends, when ye read the 
foregoing statement, pray that the faith and 
5 



50 LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH OF 

life of Charlotte Green may be yours, in order 
that her latter end, so full of joy and blessed- 
ness, may be yours also. The same grace that 
wrought so mightily in her, may work as effectu- 
ally in you. The same God and Father is wait- 
ing to be gracious to every one of you; the same 
blessed Saviour is ready to embrace you in the 
arms of his love and tenderness ; and the same 
Divine Spirit is able and willing to breathe 
into you the breath of that new and better 
life, which, though begun on earth, can only 
be perfected in the skies. Doubtless, amongst 
you there are many who, through undeserved 
mercy, have already tasted and found that the 
Lord is good and gracious, that Jesus is the 
chief among ten thousand, and altogether love- 
ly, and that there are no comforts half so sweet 
and refreshing to the soul as those of which 
the Holy Spirit is the author. Let such, with 
their whole heart and voice, praise Him, the 
holy, blessed, and glorious Jehovah, who has 
come forth from the heavenly splendours to 
light up their naturally dark and carnal na- 
tures with some rays of his own surpassing 
glory, and thus fit them to become the asso- 
ciates of angels, and "of the spirits of the just 
made perfect," around the throne. And while 



CHARLOTTE GREEN. 



51 



ye pray unto the Lord, and praise him for what 
he hath done for your own souls, oh, forget not 
the myriads of little children in India and else- 
where, who are without a Bible, without a Sa- 
viour, and virtually without a God. 




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0,019 971 782 0, 



